Ever since I was a child, I have loved game shows. I watched them all: The Price Is Right, Card Sharks, $100,000 Pyramid, Hollywood Squares, Press Your Luck, Family Feud, Name That Tune, The Gong Show, Let’s Make A Deal, Joker’s Wild, Tic Tac Dough, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!
Even as the concept of a “game show” evolved, I continued to be hooked. Shows like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Deal Or No Deal, The Wall, and The Weakest Link are must-see TV in my house. And let’s not forget some of the better “reality” game shows, like Survivor (I have never missed an episode), America’s Got Talent, The Amazing Race, and The Voice.
Game shows are seeing a resurgence lately, likely because scripted television production has been all but halted during the pandemic. This week, another oldie but goodie returned to the airwaves: Supermarket Sweep.
I wasn’t sure anyone else remembered Supermarket Sweep, but new host Leslie Jones mentioned that she tried multiple times to become a contestant on the series that ran in the 1990s, and when that didn’t work out, she decided to host the revival show. She is quite literally living out one of her childhood dreams.
I too always wanted to be a game show host. I always thought the hosts were so cool, from Jack Barry and Wink Martindale to Pat Sajak, Alex Trebek and Bob Barker, to Jeff Probst and Carson Daly. The job of game show host always seemed like the most fun someone could have while still “working.”
One of my childhood dreams also came true last week with the launch of the new customer experience game show, Experience Points.
Presented by CX leader Avtex, the arcade-themed Experience Points features me and my Experience This! podcast partner Joey Coleman as co-hosts, with a bevy of all-star contestants playing three different CX games:
- In “Fake or Fact?,” contestants must decide whether three different customer experience scenarios are real or made up. They could all be fact, all be fake, or a combination of the two.
- In “What Happened?,” contestants watch a video of a real customer describing a real customer experience. But the video stops halfway through, and the contestant must decide from four choices how the story ended.
- In “Think Fast!,” contestants must answer 5 multiple-choice questions in 60 seconds, all based on a piece of CX research.
Contestants accumulate “Experience Points” in each game, which are then converted to dollars in the form of a donation to the contestant’s favorite charity, courtesy of Avtex.
Contestants will include customer experience, customer service, and marketing experts such as: Shep Hyken, Jay Baer, Neen James, Jeanne Bliss, Jesse Cole, Marquesa Pettway, Amanda Kwok, Rohit Bhargava, and Scott McKain.
Video episodes featuring one contestant and one game are released weekly on ExperiencePointsGame.com, while full episodes featuring one contestant and all three games are available in audio-only format as a podcast. You can also check out the exclusive preview below.
This is literally the most fun I’ve had talking about customer experience, and I know you’ll enjoy it too.
Remember: Just because there’s a required part of your business doesn’t mean it has to be boring. That goes for virtual thought leadership content too, and that’s why this game show is so much fun to watch (and host).
As always, I appreciate honest feedback on the work I’m doing, so after you watch or listen to the show, contact me and let me know what you think!
P.S. – One of my dreams came true when I got to interview the late, great Alex Trebek while I was a college student:
So cool to find my 1994 interview with the late, great Alex Trebek in the @dailypenn archives! He was one of a kind. https://t.co/32msU7kZQZ pic.twitter.com/PSd3kV1Oa0
— Dan Gingiss (@dgingiss) November 11, 2020
